Israel Opens Temple Mount; Fatah Calls for 'Day of Rage' in Jerusalem

By i24 News

31 October 14

3,000 policemen deployed across Jerusalem following Palestinian declaration of 'day of rage,' also in W. bank

alestinian youth rioted Friday near the entrance to the Temple Mount in east Jerusalem. They threw firecrackers at the police and tried to force their way into the compound. Police and Border Police forces prevented their entrance and dispersed the rioters.

Israeli police was on high alert Friday morning, with 3,000 policemen deployed across the city ahead of Friday's noon prayers (Jumuah), following Hamas and Islamic Jihad's Thursday call to the Palestinians to step up their “resistance” against Israel, in Jerusalem but also in the West Bank and Gaza.

The police declared late Thursday that the Temple Mount will reopen Friday to Muslim men over the age of 50 and to women of all ages reversing Wednesday's controversial decision to close the compound until further notice amid the recent escalation in violence in east Jerusalem and the attempted assassination on a Jewish right wing activist.

"It was decided to restore [the compound] to normal... effective immediately," police spokeswoman Luba Samri told AFP. There would be no restrictions on Muslim women attending the Friday prayers, she also added.

The reopening would take effect "for dawn prayers, after midnight," according to the spokesperson.

Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed al-Masri said Thursday evening that Jordan's efforts, spearheaded by King Abdullah, had led to the decision to reopen the Temple Mount. He said Jordan had sent strong messages to the international community on the issue.

Earlier on Thursday US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki urged Israel to allow Muslim access to the mosque. In a statement, she pressed Israel to return to the "status quo" of the site.

"We're extremely concerned by escalating tensions across Jerusalem and particularly surrounding the Haram al-Sharif, Temple Mount," Psaki said.

"It is actually critical that all sides exercise restraint, refrain from provocative actions and rhetoric and preserve the status quo on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount in word and in practice," she added.

Psaki also told reporters that a "continued commitment by Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians to preserve the historic status quo at this holy site is critical."

US Secretary of State John Kerry also urged "the leaders of all three parties to exercise decisive leadership and work cooperatively together to lower tensions and discourage violence."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Thursday for calm in Jerusalem, saying that "no side should take the law into its own hands." "Day of rage"

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas called the closure a "declaration of war," and his Fatah faction declared Friday a "day of rage."

Islamic Jihad said that the “Jerusalem intifada” will continue, adding that Israeli measures in Jerusalem would not dissuade the Palestinians from “pursuing the “path of resistance and jihad.”

Hamas, for its part, called for a “day of mobilization” on Friday. It also called on Palestinians to avenge the killing of Mu’taz Hijazi, who was killed by Israeli security forces on Thursday morning, hours after attempting to assassinate Yehuda Glick, a right wing advocate of expanding Jewish prayer at the Old City's holy compound.

Hamas’ armed wing, Izaddin al-Qassam, welcomed the shooting of Glick and said that Jerusalem will be the trigger for “the battle of liberation.”

Abu Obaida, spokesman for the Qassam, said in a statement: “We salute the sacred hands that pulled the trigger of dignity and fired the bullets of revenge toward the Zionist criminal who desecrated the blessed Aqsa Mosque.”